Italian wine tribute to Pope Francis: Barolo and Marsala from 1936, the year of his birth

A Barolo, the “king” of Italian wines, from Marchesi di Barolo, the winery where in the 19th century it was born thanks to the Marchesa di Barolo Giulia Colbert Falletti, and which today preserves its history, in Barolo, and a Marsala, the first Italian wine to have a worldwide resonance in the same era, from Florio, the Sicilian winery to whose epic legacy it is linked and which preserves its tradition, in Marsala, both from 1936, the year Pope Francis was born. There is Italy - and its history, to which these two wines are strongly linked - symbolically reunited from Piedmont, among whose vineyards, in Monferrato, the Italian roots of Pope Bergoglio and his family are rooted, to Sicily, in the tribute that Italian wine delivered, today, to the Holy Father in Vatican City, and there was in the community of the sector that, among entrepreneurs, institutions and communicators, the Pontiff received in a private audience in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, and during which the exchange of gifts took place, on the day promoted by the Diocese of Verona and Veronafiere-Vinitaly in Rome dedicated to the “Economy of Francis and the world of Italian wine”. “A significant reality”, Pope Francis stressed, “in terms of the number of companies involved, quality of production and employment impact, both on the Italian and international wine scene”.
And with Monsignor Domenico Pompili, Bishop of Verona, and the top management of Veronafiere-president Federico Bricolo and CEO Maurizio Danese-among the more than 100 representatives of the Italian wine community, there was the business world, with many wine producers-from Priscilla Incisa della Rocchetta (Tenuta San Guido) to Alessia Antinori (Marchesi Antinori), from Marilisa Allegrini (San Polo, Poggio al Tesoro, Villa della Torre) to Angela Velenosi (Velenosi Vini), from Donatella Cinelli Colombini to Sabrina Tedeschi (Tedeschi), from Roberta Corrà (Giv-Gruppo Italiano Vini) to Daniela Mastroberardino (Terredora), from Marina Cvetic (Masciarelli) to Nadia Zenato (Zenato), from Maria Teresa Severini (Lungarotti) to Pina Argiolas (Argiolas) and, again, from Ernesto Abbona (Marchesi di Barolo) to Marco Caprai (Arnaldo Caprai), from Matteo Lunelli (Tenute Lunelli) to Alessio Planeta (Planeta), from Antonio Rallo (Donnafugata) to Raffaele Boscaini (Masi), from Vittorio Moretti (Terra Moretti Group) to Luca Rigotti (Mezzacorona Group), from Pierangelo Tommasi (Tommasi Family Estate) to Umberto Pasqua (Pasqua), from Roberto Anselmi (Anselmi) to Franscesco Zonin (Zonin1821), from Paolo Panerai (Domini Castellare) to Igor Boccardo (Genagricola) and Francesco Ricasoli (Barone Ricasoli), impossible to list them all … - of the “institutions”-from Federvini, with president Micaela Pallini, to Uiv-Unione Italiana Vini, with president Lamberto Frescobaldi, alongside Assoenologi president and Union Internationale des Oenologues co-president Riccardo Cotarella-from journalism-from Anna Scafuri, Rai-Tg1 Economia service chief, to Marco Mensurati, Gambero Rosso director, and WineNews director Alessandro Regoli - and the Italian Masters of Wine - Gabriele Gorelli and Andrea Lonardi (Angelini Wine & Estates). To whom Pope Francis reminded how Jesus “in the last image he leaves to his disciples, speaks of the Father as a farmer, who takes care of the vine, pruning it and thus ensuring that it bears good fruit”. And how “if respect and humanity are valid in the use of the land, they are even more decisive in the management of labor, in the protection of people and in the consumption of products, in order to mature, at the level of individuals and companies, that ability to “self-transcend, breaking isolated consciousness and self-referentiality” because the “authentic care of our own lives and our relations with nature is inseparable from fraternity, justice and fidelity to others”.
Emphasizing how “it is therefore good that you find yourselves reflecting together on the ethical aspects and moral responsibilities involved in all this”, the Pontiff’s exhortation is to draw example from the Poverello of Assisi - as Pope Francis himself was the first to be inspired by St. Francis of Assisi in his choice of name, as well as in his message of simplicity, humility and love for “our mother Earth” - because “the fundamental lines on which you have chosen to move - attention to the environment, work and healthy consumer habits - point to an attitude centered on respect, at various levels. And respect, in your work, is certainly fundamental: for a quality product, in fact, the application of industrial techniques and commercial logic is not enough; the land, the vine, the processes of cultivation, fermentation and aging require constancy, they require attention and they require patience”.
To all, Pope Francis reminded how “wine, the earth, farming skills and entrepreneurial activity are gifts from God, but let us not forget that the Creator has entrusted them to us, to our sensitivity and honesty, so that we may make them, as Scripture says, a true source of joy for “the heart of man””.